


Killjoy

by LibertinePast



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Bonding, Daniel as initiator, Hurt/Comfort, Light Smut, M/M, fluff & trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 14:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17408543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibertinePast/pseuds/LibertinePast
Summary: AU tournament day, if Robby hadn’t been at the dojo when our heroes got back from their bonding time. Daniel doesn’t always mind when you borrow his bathing suit. Light smut and totally self-serving treats and trauma.





	Killjoy

**  
**_May 18, 2018_  


“I can hear you leaning against the door out there,” Johnny called out from the guest bed.

Shamefaced, Daniel opened the door with an armful of white linens, emblazoned with an “L” monogram.  “I thought you might need towels.” 

Johnny was sitting up on the full-sized bed, in his grey T-shirt and boxers.  “Why? You’re actually gonna let me use your pool?”

“Preferably shower. This room smells like stale beer.”

“Yeah, well you smell like stale…vodka.”

“Doubtful.” 

“I’m going swimming first. It’s tournament day. Gotta get pumped.” 

 

{{ Drunk Johnny had crashed here (literally) after they’d gotten back from their afternoon-into-night of drinking.  The long-awaited rematch had never happened.  After a tour of the home dojo, a dissertation on the meaning of all the scrolls, and the history of Miyagi-Do karate going back to the Meiji Dynasty, Daniel turned around and saw Johnny sleeping face down on a mat.

He could’ve just thrown a blanket over him, but Daniel had too much vodka-induced hospitality in his system for that. “C’mon, Johnny,” he sighed. He pulled him up to his crooked feet and started to lead him to the east wing of the house, with Johnny leaning on him heavily.

_“…is it time for the end of Rocky III…?”_

“ _The credits started rollin’ a while ago for you, Master of Disaster. You should get to bed.”_

 _“No,”_ he groaned. _“I want to know how it ends.”_

_“You already know. Everything just freezes.”_

_“…it freezes an’ turns into a_ **_painting_ ** _, get it right, LaRusso…”_

_“I’ll commission a painting of us punching each other ambiguously, how about that?”_

When they went down the hall to the guest room, it was a hairpin turn for Johnny, and his head lolled on Daniel’s shoulder for a moment. When they entered the room, Johnny breathed it in, then planked straight forward onto the luxurious bed.  _“Mmm…..Encino….”_

Daniel shook his head sadly. _“Don’t know what you got sometimes, huh…’til you don’t.”_

_“…you know it, larusso…”_

Daniel tucked him in. “ _Sleep well, Johnny.”_ } } } 

 

“You going today?” Johnny asked.

“Where?” Daniel blinked, snapping out of thoughts about last night. He was still in a weird state of excitement about having a friend sleep over, like it was fourth grade.

“The tourney, dumbass.” 

“Oh. Well, we’re one of the main sponsors, so at least one of us has to go, uh…I might just send Amanda when she gets back from chauffeuring the kids around.”

"Why?” 

“Because…I’m not sure I want to see your students in action, okay? I’m not in the mood for heart palpitations and feelin’ like I want to crawl out of my skin.” 

“I told you, I’m not Kreese.  Dude probably laid on punji sticks before a tournament or something.  I’m just going swimming.” 

“With what bathing suit, by the way?” 

_______________________

Johnny hesitated on bare feet onto the travertine patio. The tiles were already hot. He looked down and laughed at the borrowed trunks, a 50’s peach color with classic cars all over them.  They were a little small, but the netted lining inside felt particularly constricting. 

Daniel was trying to busy himself in the kitchen.  He glanced out the same window where he’d seen Johnny in a fighting stance only twenty-four hours ago. Now, the blond was in a much different presentation. Luckily, there was nothing ceramic in Daniel’s hand this time.  He looked away, rearranging the dishwasher again, thankful that the tournament was in a few hours. Johnny was turning into the houseguest that wouldn’t leave. 

He was arranging the cups on the top rack by color, ducking down so Johnny couldn’t see him through the archway.  His breath was whistling through his nose as he glanced up periodically. Johnny was padding around the pool’s edge, the frat boy clearly waiting for an audience for his antics. His legs were covered with dark blonde hair, and a light trail dusted along his stomach and disappeared into the too-small trunks.

Daniel tried to stop hearing the Cars song “Moving in Stereo” in his head as he watched. This wasn’t Phoebe Cates climbing out of the pool in _Fast Times at Ridgemont High-_ it was a completely dry middle-aged man, strutting around like a turkey.

Daniel arranged the last of the white dishes in lip-chewing defeat.

He slouched out to the patio. 

Johnny snickered at the dress pants and button-down shirt.  “What, you’re not coming in? Ah, probably for the best, you’ll just be a killjoy anyway.” 

“Out of all the options, you picked _that_ bathing suit? It doesn’t even fit _me_ anymore.”

“Then why do you still have it?”

“…Mr. Miyagi got it for me.” 

“Then this must be his cosmic way of telling you to support my dojo and get over yourself.”

Daniel laughed, shaking his head. “That, uh…would actually be in line with his sense of humor, but…what I think about you and what I think about Cobra Kai are two different things.”

“Can’t have one without the other.” Johnny stepped up on the fancy locust wood diving board and started to bounce. 

“Easy with the horsing around? I just had that thing put in. The kids were usin’ a trampoline.”

“Aw, that would be even better. See? You’re a killjoy. Front flip, man, it’s on.” 

“Hey, Showoff, c’mon. You’re not eighteen anymore.” 

“It’s a state of mind, LaRusso,” he said, panting a little already with each bounce.

“Yeah, we wish.” 

Johnny jumped up one last time before flipping forward, hitting his head on the board with a _whack_ and plunging into the water.  

Daniel’s mouth fell open. “Oh my God…Johnny?… _”_  

A cluster of bubbles came to the surface, but nothing else.

“Johnny?!” Without even kicking off his pricey shoes, Daniel lunged at the water as if a fishing net hook was coming at him. Johnny was hovering limply below the surface as Daniel braced him in his arms and struggled upwards.  Johnny was heavy as hell and slipping; Daniel felt like Kreese in way the he was bracing him. It was an image he had closed his eyes and seen so many times, and now he was in it. Only in this version, Johnny had succumbed to the dark.

Daniel dragged him to the deck, laying him out gingerly. “Shit.” He put his ear to his mouth, but there wasn’t even a faint hiss. “No,” he moaned. “C’mon, Johnny, c’mon…”  

Shivering, he tilted Johnny’s chin up with an unsteady hand. When he pinched his nose, meeting his lips with his own, Johnny’s fingers involuntarily curled on the travertine. He let out his breath and laughed. “Psyche!” 

Daniel had fallen backwards into a puddle. “Fucking asshole!” 

“My _hero_ ,” Johnny fawned in a high-pitched voice, laying on his side with his hand to his head. “C’mon, you seriously thought I drowned in like two seconds? Didn’t you ever read your damn yearbook? Swim team 1-2-3, I’m like a marine.” 

“With a head injury?” 

“I didn’t hit it hard enough to get fucking knocked unconscious. You watch too much TV,” he chuckled. “I heard you freaking out, I just had to play along. You just kissed a Cobra, sucker, now you’re one of us.” 

“Fuck off.” Daniel grabbed a towel off the picnic table, his shoes sloshing the whole way. He hurled it at Johnny. “That was sadistic, even for you.” He stormed away.

Johnny fumbled the towel around himself, following him into the house. “….Hey…Daniel, I’m sorry. I’m _sorry!”_

“Nice try, Bobby Brown, just get dressed and get out of here. Better yet, keep the bathing suit. It’s probably full of your skid marks.” 

“Come on, man, is that really necessary?”

Daniel let out a cynical laugh as they sloshed into the living room. “Not even gonna touch the word _necessary_ right now.” He held on to the sofa table in the living room, the floor not feeling solid. “Nothing ever is with you. Re-opening Cobra Kai, dragging me to some dive bar all afternoon, faking your own death?”

“I did _not,_ LaRusso, God, you obviously weren’t in a frat.” 

“No, but I know the mentality all too well. After yesterday, I thought maybe I could even tell you about…just, never mind. Don’t fuck with me like that.”

Johnny was silent for a moment, his blue eyes darkening. He placed a hand on Daniel’s shoulder, feeling the way his clothes were stuck to him. “Look...I really didn’t expect all the Baywatch shit back there. Thanks.” 

“Shut up. I feel more like drunk David Hasselhofff eatin’ a hamburger off the floor whenever you’re around.” 

“I’ve never consoled anyone after a cruel prank. That’s good, right?” He patted his shoulder.

Daniel grumbled something unintelligible.  “All you ever want is a reaction.” 

“Are you more mad you got cheated out of your heroic tale? Look, when your family gets back, just tell them that’s how it went down. I don’t care. Your wife will be all touched and shit, and it’ll be a big guru lesson for the kids.” Johnny threw his hands up. “I revoke all rights to the story.”

Daniel sighed, steadier on his feet. The towel had fallen from Johnny’s waist, revealing the too-small trunks again. “And how will the story go between us? You makin’ fun of me for the rest of my life?” 

“Absolutely.”

Daniel sighed again. “Such a dick.”

"You should get out of those wet clothes. Your paranoid Italian grandma must be rolling in her grave.” 

“And you should put ice where you hit your head. That first.” Daniel sloshed into the kitchen and came back with ice pack from the freezer.  “Where’s the spot?” 

Johnny tousled the back of his wet gold hair until he winced a little. “It’s not that-“ 

Daniel smooshed the ice pack against the spot, cutting him off. “Yeah, I’ll be damned if you let me drag you out of a pool, but get all ‘don’t make a fuss’ about a little ice, Munchausen.”

“Fine. Nothing can come between you and your fuss….thanks.” 

Daniel met his eyes and swallowed hard, very audibly.  He was starting to feel the chill of the wet clothes and moved closer to the ruddy body in front of him.

“Johnny…you really scared the shit out of me.”

“…I know. And I’m trying really hard not to be smug about that.”

“Yeah, right.”

The gentle sound of his voice was tingling the nerves in Johnny’s scalp. Diaz had shown him a video about that, what was it called…A, S, MRE’s or something. It was stronger than the ice on his head. 

Lowering the ice pack, Daniel slowly pulled him into his soggy shirt.  He remembered how stiff he was that day at the dealership, although it had taken a few days to come down from the encounter to realize it. Johnny’s arms weren’t stuck to his sides like they were in that musty hoodie. This time, his bare arms laced around Daniel’s back. 

Daniel compressed him a little tighter in his arms, feeling his lungs expand. He didn’t smell like stale beer anymore, just sugar and anise.  Like one of his crazy aunt’s pizzelle cookies, and he had as many beautiful lines etched in him.

He smelled a bakery but was still preoccupied with death. He thought about Mr. Miyagi’s insignificant last words of “ _…what was answer to Jumble…?”_   He thought of his father’s gravestone in East Orange, covered in frost and lichen.  Johnny didn’t almost die, he told himself, but he was still afraid. He needed to feel that the solid, mammal weight of the body in his arms was alive. 

Daniel let his fear lead him. It made him cup his hands around Johnny’s face, studying it.  Peach trunks met soaked dress pants. Johnny fully accepted the trembling lips that closed in on his, wondering if they really _had_ brought him back to life by the pool.  He didn’t make a sound until Daniel’s eager tongue broke through. Then, the silence was over for both of them.  Johnny’s moan was higher pitched than he would’ve liked, while Daniel’s was low, from deep in his belly. In one fell swoop they fell backwards onto the sofa table, crashing into knick-knacks, and rolled over the back of the sofa, kiss unbroken.

Daniel had landed on top of Johnny on the cushions, feeling every inch of the flushed chest underneath him until he tore his own wet shirt off, desperate for skin against skin. Johnny gasped something but was cut off by Daniel’s special brand of resuscitation again. A kiss had never felt like someone reveling in him not being dead. No one exactly reveled in him at all.

Daniel kissed down the taut pectoral muscles, lingered at Johnny’s nipple and drew it into his mouth.  His cheeks hollowing out as he watched the effects the whole time, slowly trailing from one to the other. The blond arched his back and Daniel was losing his mind from it. “…please…” a small voice that sounded like Johnny’s shivered. “Please don’t stop.” 

The brunette suddenly bolted upright, drained of his warm color again. He tried to say something, but there wasn’t enough air to fill the words.  He’d never heard this man say ‘please’ and it was as frightening as it was electrifying.

“What is this, opposite day?” Johnny panted. “I said _don’t_ stop, Killer.” 

Daniel shook his head despairingly, caging his eyes in his hand.  “..what’re we doing?”

“…hwhat…? You hug me, kiss me, rip your shirt off, suck my nips and _then_ wonder what we’re doing?”

“Don’t, just _don’t_ say it like that!” he winced, throwing on his shirt with the blown-out buttons and pinching it futilely over his chest.  “You should go…you probably have to get to the sports arena.” 

“What, like this?” He gestured to the giant erection in his trunks. “Yeah, that’ll fly with those board members.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Johnny, it’ll go away. If it doesn’t, get to a doctor,”  Daniel exhaled, his back to him, adjusting his own problem away. "You can’t tell me you expected any of _this_ to happen after your little prank.”

“…no.  But I wasn’t exactly objecting.” 

Daniel felt like he was lying in a ditch, and as usual, it was of his own making. “Just go…”  

“Fine. Soon as I relieve myself of what _you_ started. Wherever the hell I feel like unloading, too. I’ll surprise you.”

Daniel, feeling lower than abysmal, had no idea why that gross thought made his breath catch. He watched Johnny’s butt start to walk away in the too-small trunks, then facepalmed himself. “Alexa,” he called out miserably, his go-to distraction n modern life. ”Encino weather?” 

“Okay. Playing Peter Cetera.” 

“Alexa, no, stop!” 

“Okay, volume up.” 

The familiar piano intro of “Glory of Love” swelled through the room as he cringed from head to toe. “My son must’ve fried this thing’s circuits or something!” he groaned as Johnny stifled a laugh.

“If you really don’t want me to go, just say so,” Johnny grinned, prowling back towards him, gloating way too much. “You know how to set the mood, LaRusso, I’ll give you that.”

“This song reminds me of a very special person, and you’re ruining it.” 

“It’s like all you ever want is a reaction.”

“Dammit, Johnny!”

 “ _I am a man, who will fight, for your honnnnor…_ ” he sang along, badly, his arms in his ‘come at me’ stance. “… _did yoou ever know that you’re my hero?_ ” he flubbed.

“That’s ‘Wind Beneath My Wings,” idiot,” Daniel tried not to smile. 

“You have to go to the tournament now. I’ve really gone above and beyond to convince you to go.”

“…Why not…” he relented. “What’s one more traumatic experience today…” 

“I know, but…I like the way you cope,” Johnny grinned.  

"It's not healthy. It's definitely not." 


End file.
